Rescue brothers - litter problems
Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2020 2:49 pm
Hello,
I am feeling very sad and hoping someone out there might be able to help me. We rescued two brothers, 4 years old, in August last year, through a local cat rescue charity. For the first 2 or 3 months we had them, we confined them to a small area of our house, as they were very timid. We had one litter tray and no problems at all. They grew in confidence, and we opened up the whole house to them in October last year. Since then, we are getting wee everywhere. It started with the odd 'accident'. And now it is a regular occurrence, and every day I seem to be finding new wee in different places. Some places are hot spots and it happens over and over again. Other places are completely new. Some rooms in our house have never been wee-ed in. Some get wee-ed in over and over again.
I can think of two possible reasons. 1. October was when we started potty training my daughter - and for the first few weeks she had some accidents around the house. She is fully trained now, but could this have been the spark? 2. they came from a very small flat, where they were mostly confined to just one room for their whole lives. Is living in a big house just too different and stressful for them now?
This has been going on for 4 months now and we have tried all sorts of things - to no avail. They have been to the vets to check for problems. We have multiple litter trays. We have feliway plugs everywhere. We try and shut them out of rooms which are hot spots for accidents. We have tried tempting them out to the garden this past month - one will go out but the other is too timid. We have tried used various sprays for cleaning which I have bought online, which are meant to stop repeat marking. We have tried deep cleaning and using surgical spirit.
I feel so sad, firstly because I am the biggest cat lover in the world, and these two are lovely, lovely boys. But I feel like I can't go on like this, and I worry that this is a problem that can't be solved. They are timid, one of them in particular, but they are loving and friendly, seemingly happy and relaxed, and seem to have settled in with us so well in every other way. Secondly, I feel so sad because this is the second set of rescue cats I have had, and I still miss the first ones so much. We had them until they were 18 and 19 years old and they were everything to me. I know you can never replace a cat in your heart, but for some reason it makes this failure all the more upsetting for me. I can't help but compare them.
I don't know what to do. Can anyone help me?
I am feeling very sad and hoping someone out there might be able to help me. We rescued two brothers, 4 years old, in August last year, through a local cat rescue charity. For the first 2 or 3 months we had them, we confined them to a small area of our house, as they were very timid. We had one litter tray and no problems at all. They grew in confidence, and we opened up the whole house to them in October last year. Since then, we are getting wee everywhere. It started with the odd 'accident'. And now it is a regular occurrence, and every day I seem to be finding new wee in different places. Some places are hot spots and it happens over and over again. Other places are completely new. Some rooms in our house have never been wee-ed in. Some get wee-ed in over and over again.
I can think of two possible reasons. 1. October was when we started potty training my daughter - and for the first few weeks she had some accidents around the house. She is fully trained now, but could this have been the spark? 2. they came from a very small flat, where they were mostly confined to just one room for their whole lives. Is living in a big house just too different and stressful for them now?
This has been going on for 4 months now and we have tried all sorts of things - to no avail. They have been to the vets to check for problems. We have multiple litter trays. We have feliway plugs everywhere. We try and shut them out of rooms which are hot spots for accidents. We have tried tempting them out to the garden this past month - one will go out but the other is too timid. We have tried used various sprays for cleaning which I have bought online, which are meant to stop repeat marking. We have tried deep cleaning and using surgical spirit.
I feel so sad, firstly because I am the biggest cat lover in the world, and these two are lovely, lovely boys. But I feel like I can't go on like this, and I worry that this is a problem that can't be solved. They are timid, one of them in particular, but they are loving and friendly, seemingly happy and relaxed, and seem to have settled in with us so well in every other way. Secondly, I feel so sad because this is the second set of rescue cats I have had, and I still miss the first ones so much. We had them until they were 18 and 19 years old and they were everything to me. I know you can never replace a cat in your heart, but for some reason it makes this failure all the more upsetting for me. I can't help but compare them.
I don't know what to do. Can anyone help me?